A Facebook user publicly alleged that Nayika had posted a photo in her personal Instagram feed showing her with an unidentified man.

BNK48 members are contractually prohibited from owning an Instagram account and cannot have their pictures taken with other people without permission, lest such images hurt the singing group’s carefully maintained wholesome image.

A committee’s decision to suspend Nayika from all BNK48 activities starting on Tuesday was published on the group’s official Facebook page.

By then, Nayika had already apologised publicly in a short Facebook Live broadcast.

The girl group made headlines late last month when they met Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha at Government House to promote the launch of Happy Family Radio FM 105.

The pair performs at a pool party with stunning views over Bangkok at The Continental Hotel this Saturday (May 12) alongside another popular duo, Jam on Toast. Consisting of Rui and Chote Jam on Toast is all about good, uplifting music regardless of genre or format, effortlessly mixing such tunes as Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” into a dreamy lo-fi house by Folamour.

Refusing to confine themselves by label and genre, the Bangkok-based Dark White seamlessly switches between disco, house, boogie, funk, soul, rare grooves, R&B, and anything else to keep the crowd moving. With heavy accolades already under their belt having opened for FKJ, Bondax, Pomo, Cherokee and Darius, Dark White continues to bring good music to the people.

Together and separately, they’ve played at various venues in Thailand including Sing Sing Theatre, Sri Panwa, Baba Beach Club, Beam and Wonderfruit.

Tickets are Bt400 including one drink. For more information and table reservations, call (02) 686 7000.

Joining forces in 2010, the duo has played alongside some of the industry’s biggest names including Deadmau5, Sebastian Ingrosso and Sander Van Doorn. Their music quickly caught the ear of Hardwell, who signed Paris & Simo’s track early productions “Monk” and “Nova”.

With high energy and a stage presence comparable to that of seasoned veterans, Paris & Simo have rocked the stage at Resolution Quebec in 2011 and set the scene for a roaring crowd of 6,000 people. One of their biggest moments was winning the first ever Discovery Project in 2012, which led to the opportunity of playing at EDC amongst thousands of screaming fans.

In 2013, Paris & Simo have pumped out three monster singles, “Escape”, “Tundra”, and “Chaa”, that sat in the Top 100 on Beatport at the same time. “Tundra” has received massive support from artists such as Fedde Le Grand, the late Avicii, Tiesto & Hardwell who played this heavy hitter during their sets. Other tracks are “Can You See”, “Long Way Home”, and “Reunited.”

Collaborations with 3LAU, Merk & Kremont, Mako, Rico & Miella and Jochen Miller were picked up by some of the most significant record labels in the global dance scene, including Spinnin’ and Armada Music Records.

Paris & Simo have also hit the decks at the Electric Daisy Carnival and Ecuador’s Life in Colour, as well as entertaining and pleasing the crowds in such world-famous clubs as Pier 94 with Hardwell, Guvernment with David Guetta, and at Las Vegas’ Marquee and XS. In 2015, the duo toured with David Guetta, where they represented the ever-popular EDM scene in Canada.

For more information and table reservations, call (082) 308 3246.

NEW YORK PARENTS, ever vigilant for new ways to amuse their offspring, picked up their babies and flocked to the Metropolitan Opera last week for a very special US performance.

“BambinO” – a 40-minute opera composed specifically for infants –crossed the Atlantic for a booked-out, six-day run after winning over audiences in Britain and Paris.

Well-dressed and well-groomed six- to 18-month-old New Yorkers assembled in a small auditorium at the Met, either cradled on parents’ knees or crawling and toddling among a sea of soft blue cushions.

Babies can make as much noise as they want, the audience was told. Adults, on the other hand, are told to pipe down.

The character Pulcino, played by Timothy Connor, performs for BambinO – a 40minute opera composed specifically for infants./AFP

Then the music started. Sung in Italian and baby sounds, the opera is performed by a cellist, a percussionist and two singers, who roam among the children, introducing them to furry toy birds and a golden egg.

Almost any baby contemplating a meltdown stopped crying, variously grinning, baffled and engaged by the colourfully costumed singers.

Sloane Campbell, 12 months, already goes to a music class once a week and her mother Kate Mangiameli is a Met singer herself, but last Monday marked her first live performance.

“Hearing that kind of singing from someone other than me is probably pretty great for her,” said Mangiameli.

The plot, secondary to the music as in most operas, tells the story of a bird, a baby bird and their relationship before the baby’s quest for flight ultimately leads to separation.

“It’s not a patronising kiddies show, it’s a genuine, beautiful piece of quite challenging music,” director Phelim McDermott explained. Jokes aside about the Met’s quest to lower the average age of its audience, each performance seeks to win over babies and caregivers to an art form often castigated as elitist and out of touch.

Laura Sergeant accompanies the action on cello, giving the kids something else to adore./AFP

“We thought what a magical thing to bring true opera to little people,” said composer Lliam Paterson, who believes even very young children respond to musical patterns, rhythm and text.

Initially commissioned by Scottish Opera and performed in Scotland and Manchester, Paterson said coming to New York, arguably one of the world’s greatest opera venues, was “amazing.” Charlotte Hoather, who plays the character Uccellina, said reactions are different every time, and vary from country to country. If French children were very calm, Americans were more forthright.

“We had confident babies today. Very brave,” she commented.

“I was just having fun because she was clearly overjoyed the whole time. I couldn’t stop smiling,” said nurse Jessie Thisell, whose daughter Bonnie wandered around transfixed.

“She wouldn’t have enjoyed it if she had to sit still.”

In a world of opera obsessed with widening outreach, “BambinO” makes no secret of its determination to win over new audiences.

“We’ve had people who love rock music and punk rock people and they were like ‘I might go to something at my local theatre’ and that’s really cool,” Hoather said.

The performers say meltdowns are surprisingly few, and usually food or tiredness-related.

“It’s an experiment. We’ll see what happens,” said Peter Gelb, general manager of the Met, asked whether it could become regular repertoire.

“We need to reintroduce the arts to the school system and we might as well start earlier than that, at the beginning.”

But McDermott had words of advice for parents trying to push the envelope and bring children older than 18 months.

“We genuinely created an opera for babies. Toddlers get bored.”

Ask Anuwat Wichiennarat what’s most important to him in life and he doesn’t hesitate for a second before replying “music”.

“It’s a dream, a passion and a love,” says the 36-year-old chief executive of concert organiser 4Nologue, who has achieved astronomical success in the past few years.

“That’s all based on music. I used music to make me feel happy and to improve the situation of my family, who were far from rich.”

Now a high-earner, Anuwat formerly launched the new headquarters of 4Nologue in February, bringing in a veritable army of Thai and international stars to the grand opening, among them Got7, one of South Korea’s most popular boy bands. He has invested Bt200 million in the new building, which also houses rehearsal rooms and recording studio to facilitate artist management. It is from here that he will implement his Bt300-million mega project “5-7-9”, which gets its name from boy band SBFive, Got7, and 9×9, a newly formed boy band with nine members.

“I’m grateful to all our strong business partners for their continuous support. I’m doing what I believe in and I’m honest,” says Anuwat, who is now developing his company into a content provider.

“The future of 4Nologue lies in exporting our content like South Korea does. For a long time, it’s been bringing its artists to the world with enormous success. We are ready to be a leader and also a role model.”

It hasn’t always been easy for Anuwat. Born into a modest fruit-growing family in Nakhon Pathom, the middle of three children, he started listening to music on the radio as a young child and says it was his only escape from the tedium of everyday life.

“I never thought about turning my passion for music into a career. All I knew was that I only felt happy when I was listening to music. I discovered that music actually could be a career when I was in high school. I asked a teacher counsellor what I should study at university to follow that career and the answer was communication arts. But my parents disagreed, telling me I should work in the civil service or for a company so I could have stability in life. I hated mathematics so I selected English as my major at Bangkok University, because I thought it would give me a wider choice of fields and occupations,” Anuwat recalls.

It was during his second year at university that Anuwat saw a way of following his dream of being a disc jockey. He pleaded with Jiaranai Oprasert, then a producer of a radio wave at GMM Grammy subsidiary A-Time to take him on as an apprentice. Jiaranai agreed and Anuwat learnt everything from the process of recording a jingle and radio spot to programme coordination. His hard work paid off and in just two months, he was rewarded with a job as a programme coordinator.

“It was very difficult for me at that time as I was working from dusk to dawn and dragging myself into the classroom before noon,” says Anuwat, who took out loans to pay for his university education and paid them back after graduation.

Anuwat soon found out that he didn’t really want to be a DJ but a producer. After graduation, he decided he would ask MCOT to take him on as manager of a radio station.

“My ego was just too big, fuelled by graduating with better results than other students because of my working experience. As a new grad, I presented my proposal for managing a radio wave to Mingkwan Sangsuwan, who was the president of MCOT at that time. It was crazy. Understandably he rejected me, but he also give me some good advice. He said, ‘You are only a creative not a marketing executive. You presentation is good but it lacks reality.’ That was my turning point,” says Anuwat.

Several months later, he applied for and landed a marketing job at Channel [V] and proceeded to learn everything he could – from sales to events, music awards, artist management and customer contact as well as live shows. He also came to know South Korea’s artists and organised the first large-scale concert by TVXQ at Impact Arena in front of an audience of 14,000.

“I was just as passionate about music. Every time I listened to an English song, I could understand what it meant. YouTube had yet to be invented so I watched concerts on VCD. When I went to concerts, I studied how and why the movements of stages, lighting, sound system, and backdrops were synchronised with songs. I learnt the entire production process, the functions of stage equipment, and the lighting and sound system.”

Now 24, Anuwat revised his dream of programme producer and set his sights of becoming a music event organiser or a concert promoter.

He joined with three friends to set up 4Nologue – a name borrowed from the word monologue – and the company started its business by offering the most popular Korean boy band, TVXQ as product presenter for a Japanese firm.

“It was very tough,” recalls Anuwat with a smile. “I was flying to South Korea four times a month together a translator to present my profile, my reliability and my proposal. Moreover, I conducted research into the product’s marketing statistics. The customer complained: ‘You know that our product is Japanese? So why you are presenting a Korean artist to us?’ But I could see the product had to follow the K-pop fever. As it turned out, TVXQ was the first Korean presenter for a product out of their home country.

“While dealing with the Korean boy band’s label, I was given two rulebooks: ‘Artist Rider’ for the presenter and ‘Technical Rider’ for a concert performer. At first, I hated them, because they were so difficult. But everything went smoothly in the end. At first, the Korean artists wouldn’t try any Thai food except for phad thai. They were suspicious of spices and wouldn’t touch tom yam goong. Four years later, they had fallen in love with Thai food and since then, they’ve been demanding a range of dishes including koong thod sauce makham’ (fried shrimp with tamarind sauce), phad phakboong’ (fried morning glory) and kaeng som chaom khai’ (sour curry with vegetable omelette),” he grins.

Part of the “Classy Live Project” series, it will have fans jiving to “Stayin’ Alive” and swooning to “How Deep is Your Love” and “I Started a Joke”.

On the bill will be Surasee Ithikul, Suchart Chawangkun, Paibulkiat Khiewkaew, Pom Autobahn, Chompoo and Ping Fruity, Edward Vanzo, Ie Weeranukul and others. Seats cost Bt1,000 to Bt3,000 at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com and (02) 262 3456. The price includes the CD “A Cordial Tribute to Bee Gees”. Learn more information on Classy Records’ Facebook page.

Candela ready to burn

Influential Ibiza-based DJ JP Candela, billed as David Guetta’s DJ of choice and for years the resident DJ on the Pacha Ibiza World Tour, will perform at the Insanity club on Sukhumvit Soi 11 in Bangkok on May 11. It’s one of his “F*** Me I Am Famous” parties. Get the details and book a VIP table at (082) 731 8885.

Offermann you can’t refuse

Berlin-based DJ-producer Oskar Offermann will man the turntables at Glow on Sukhumvit Soi 23 that same night, May 11. The former drummer and beat producer from Frankfurt rolled into house music and released the albums, “Do Pilots Still Dream of Flying?” and “Le Grand Todo” to international recognition.

Having played all over the world, he arrives in Bangkok courtesy of Music Makes Me High and UNST, and will be supported by Sarayu, Elaheh and Boogie G. Find out more and reserve a table at (086) 614 3355.

These Dice can roll

New York-born jazz guitarist Adam Rogers is bringing his trio Dice to the Dr Thaworn Phornprapha Auditorium on the fifth floor of Siam Motors on May 26. Rogers, bassist Fima Ephron and drummer Nate Smith give a nod to rock, funk, blues, country amid their jazz virtuosity, evoking the gritty street sounds of a bygone New York City. Admission is Bt2,000 at the door.

Birthday outing for Chantana

Veteran vocalist Chantana Kitiyapan is celebrating her 73rd birthday with a pair of concerts titled “We Are Family”, afternoon and evening, at the Chalermkrung Royal Theatre on May 27. Surin Methanee, Worapat Withayopas and Natnalee Surapalanan will also perform, with National Artist Wirach Yoothaworn conducting the Chalermraj big band. Seats cost Bt1,000 at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com and (02) 262 3456.

There’ll be live band, a “Buy One Get One” drinks promotion until 9pm followed by Circuit House and Vocal House spins by DJ Tackthai and Pangina Heals’ drag show.

Entry is Bt500. Book by calling Ken at (087) 015 6600 or email: ken.leing@gmail.com.

Spinning by the pool

The Westin Grande Sukhumvit on Sukhumvit Soi 19 hosts a pool party on May 19 from 1 to 9pm teaming up with international DJs including Italy’s Sammy, America’s Juany Bravo, France’s Jerome G, and Spain’s Chazin for an afternoon and house and nu disco. Entry is Bt400 including one drink and there’ll be an open bar from 1 to 2.

For table reservations, call (02) 207 8000.

“Blood” in the groove

Canadian electronic musician Mike Milosh will make his debut concert in Thailand at Voice Space of BBD Building on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road on May 23, as he takes part in the third year of the Singha Light Live Series. Milosh produced, wrote, and recorded “Blood”, which was released early this year. Expect to hear some of the tracks.

Tickets are Bt2,000 at the door and at http://www.TicketMelon.com/rhyebkk.

A bikini in the house

Thailand’s top DJs will be spinning the finest house, future house, bass house, classic house, and hip hop at a colourful bikini pool party at ibis Styles Bangkok Khaosan Viengtai tomorrow from 4 until midnight. It’s free entry with one drink from 4-6pm with prizes for most eye-catching outfit at the rainbow pool.

Find out more at (02) 280 5434.

Dancing on the roof

Ambar, located eight stories up on the rooftop of Four Points by Sheraton Bangkok on Sukhumvit Soi 15, is also holding a pool party tomorrow from 2 to 8pm featuring a lineup of international DJs including France’s Jules Blons, South Africa’s 2C, England’s Hasan Khan, and India’s Aneesh Medina. Entry is Bt300 including one standard drink. For more information and table reservations, call (02) 309 3000, or email: Fourpoints.sukhumvit15@fourpoints.com.

Unique among music awards shows, honorees are selected by performance on the Billboard Charts, widely considered to be the ultimate authority in the music industry.

The ceremony on May 21 will be broadcast live at 7am, Blue Ant Entertainment on True Vision Channel 337.

As one of the largest pop music show of the year, the show celebrates music’s greatest achievements.

Video promo : 

Get pumped up by the raddest performances by your favourite artists and find out who wins.